


La fille aux yeux d'email (The Girl with Enamel Eyes)

by ChElFi



Series: I Don't Dance [29]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 30 Day OTP Challenge, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, Attempt at Humor, Captain Hill - Freeform, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Humor, POV Child, POV Original Character, day 29, doing something sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 06:16:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2377886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChElFi/pseuds/ChElFi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria and Steve watch Hope dance in Coppelia. (An oversimplification, but you know I suck at summaries.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	La fille aux yeux d'email (The Girl with Enamel Eyes)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Not for the Faint of Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1707632) by [ChElFi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChElFi/pseuds/ChElFi). 



> A/N: Haven't decided if it's more difficult to write fluff or write the way a five-year-old thinks. Probably the former. ;)
> 
> Anyway, off to my favorite comedic ballet, Coppelia, today. That's where I got the title (It's the subtitle of Coppelia). This story takes place about one-and-a-half years after the previous one and is inspired by my older story "Not for the Faint of Heart." You might want to read that, it's just a short story, to get an idea what's going on here, but I think you might be able to get the gist of it without the older story.
> 
> Thanks for all the new likes and follows and reviews.
> 
> Please R&R

Five-year-old Hope Rogers looked at her reflection in the full length mirror in the back stage dressing room. Her daddy had done her hair in a perfect ballet bun. Her Aunt Pepper had done her make-up. Recital was the only time of the year Hope was permitted to wear make-up. Her powder-blue costume with the pink tutu finished with pink tights and ballet slippers made her look like a real ballerina. She smiled happily.

Last year had been different. Last year her mommy had done her hair and make-up and had sat backstage with her for her first recital. But then mommy went away. First she went to work far away, then she went to heaven to be with the angels. Hope was very sad. She didn't think the angels needed her mommy as much as she and her daddy did. Daddy tried to tell her different, but he cried more than Hope so she didn't believe him.

Then one day when she was staying with Aunt Pepper and Uncle Tony while Daddy had to go to work far away, Daddy called her and told her he found Mommy and was going to bring her home. Hope didn't understand. Everyone had told her that once people go to heaven they couldn't come back. Later, as she thought about it, she understood better.

Her daddy was Captain America and he was very strong and brave. He was never afraid of things like the dark or the basement or the Ferguson's dog. But she did remember that once she heard Daddy tell Mommy that he was afraid he would lose Mommy. That hadn't made any sense to Hope, either. How could you lose a person? Hope had once lost her doll at the store, but it seemed kind of silly to lose a big person like Mommy. But Daddy was afraid of doing that, and when Mommy went to heaven, Daddy was very sad.

Hope figured that Daddy hadn't gone to work far away, what he'd really done was go to heaven to take Mommy back from the angels. Hope knew angels were very strong, but once Mommy had told her a story of how Daddy had gone all by himself to rescue Uncle Bucky and a whole bunch of their friends and he had to fight hundreds of soldiers and the ugly Red Skull to save them. Hope didn't think angels were probably much stronger than the Red Skull so it really wouldn't have been too much of a problem for him.

Later she wondered why Daddy hadn't simply gone to heaven at first, right after the angels took Mommy. But she asked the Priest if it was hard to find heaven and he told her that the bible said that few find the way to heaven. Hope figured it must have taken Daddy a while to find the way, or he'd have brought Mommy back much sooner.

When she'd told her best friend, Mia, all this, Mia thought Hope's daddy was the bravest and strongest man in the world. Her own daddy had only gone into outer space and he'd had his Ironman suit on when he did. Hope's daddy didn't need an Ironman suit.

Today was the best day though. Today, Daddy had gone to the hospital to bring Mommy to the recital and, after, they would all go home together. Mommy had been too sick to come home right away when she got back from heaven. Hope had wondered when she saw her mommy in the hospital if it had been such a good thing for Daddy to bring her back. She looked very weak, and she couldn't walk at all. Maybe this was why people didn't usually come back from heaven. The priest had said that in heaven the body got changed. Hope didn't really think it was a good change but maybe you didn't need to walk and stuff in heaven because you had wings to fly around. Or maybe the air was different so Mommy got sick breathing Earth's dirty air because she was used to Heaven's clean air.

Miss Katie came into the dressing room and told the boys and girls to line up for their dance. The backstage moms put them in order. Hope was very excited even though she knew she couldn't see her Mommy from the stage. Aunt Pepper had promised her that Mommy was in the audience before she left to go sit with her. Hope knew she was supposed to stand still and wait quietly but she couldn't stop herself from bouncing slightly.

Finally she and her friends followed Miss Katie to the side of the stage. Last year Hope had been afraid because it was dark in the wings. This year she wasn't afraid of the dark, as much, because if Daddy could bring Mommy all the way back from Heaven, he could protect Hope from all the terrible things that were in the dark, though maybe not the basement.

Once out onstage, Hope and her friends entertained "Swanhilde" and hers by dancing the Chinese doll dance. Then they left the stage and went back to the dressing room to wait for the finale. When that was over, Hope ran out the side door with her friends and found her daddy waiting for her. He carried her over to her mommy who held peach and pink roses* for Hope in her arms. Daddy set her down in Mommy's lap. Hope was sad because her mommy still needed a wheelchair but Daddy had told her it wouldn't be for much longer.

"I'm so proud of you, baby girl," her Mommy said as she held her. "You did really well."

Uncle Tony, Aunt Pepper, Mia, Uncle Clint, and Aunt Natasha were all there as well. Not Gregory, though, he couldn't sit still long enough because he was a fidgeter. But Hope didn't really mind because sometimes Gregory pulled her hair when it was in pigtails and she didn't want him to pull out her pretty ballet bun.

After the grown-ups took a ton of pictures, everyone walked to the parking lot. Last year they had gone to Hope's favorite restaurant, _gobo_. This year she and Daddy were going to take Mommy home. Hope had told everyone that was just fine with her. They could go out out some other time. Hope just wanted to get home and snuggle with her mommy and help her daddy take care of her.

* _peach=appreciation; pink=admiration/sweetness_

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I'd say that's as sweet as I get but tomorrow's is probably sweeter. :)
> 
> Oh, and that second to last paragraph is a nod to story #5 of this series.
> 
> I was going for funny here, but from some of the feedback I've received at FFN I'm not sure if I've achieved it. It's either because people don't expect me not to rip their hearts out or I'm the only one around here with gallows humor. :D


End file.
